I have several of the old games still at home but cannot really play many of them considering that I do not have direct access to a floppy drive anymore. Some came on CD on the other hand, but even those may not be playable right away due to changes in computer hardware and operating system.

ScummVM is an Open Source project that has been designed as an interface to make those old games playable again on modern PCs. While the project concentrated on Lucas Arts adventure games in the beginning, hence the name ScummVM, it is now supporting a variety of classic games, including some of my all time favorite games.

A list of all games currently supported is available here. Some of the supported games include Day of the Tentacle, Gabriel Knight I and II, the Monkey Island Series, Broken Sword I and II, as well as the Indiana Jones series.

This guide explains how to play those old games on your new modern PC with the help of ScummVM. Start by downloading the latest version of the application for your operating system from the developer website. The project supports many different operating systems, from Windows, Linux and Mac over various mobile devices to gaming systems. They even have a version for the Commodore Amiga and Sega’s Dreamcast.

Please note that you need the original files from the floppy disks or CDs to play the game. You basically point the game to the files on your local hard drive. I suggest you copy them from the original CD or floppy disk to your hard drive to play them directly from there so that you do not need to have the CD or floppy disks at hand whenever you want to play the game.

Start ScummVM and click on the Add Game button on the right of the interface. You now need to use the file browser to select a game directory on your computer.

ScummVM will pick up any games under the selected folder hierarchy. Pick one of the games and select OK twice to add it to the program listing. You can alter game settings if you like on the second configuration screen, for instance to enable fullscreen gaming mode or to change the game volume.

You start a game that has been added with a click on it and then another click on Start. You can alternatively double-click the game in the list.

The game will run in the window with no apparent option to go back to the menu. Here are a few helpful keyboard shortcuts to get you sorted out.

• Ctrl-F5, Displays the start menu
• Ctrl-q, Quits the application
• Alt-Enter, Toggles full screen mode
• Alt-s, Create screenshot
• Ctrl-[0-9] and Alt-[0-9], load and save game states
• Space, Pauses the game

A list of all available hotkeys is available in the readme.

Adding games is the hard part, once that’s done there is nothing stopping you from enjoying those classical adventure games again on your modern computer.

The players task is to help Frank, that is the name of the soldier, find out what happened during the blackout. The style of the adventure consists of a mix of hand drawn and photographed objects which creates a unique visual style. I would suggest to start the configuration tool before playing for the first time to make sure all settings are the way you want them to be.

You only need the mouse to control the game.A right-click cycles through the options like walk, talk and use that are available and a left-click performs the action.

Features of Purgatorio

800×600 resolution with 32 bit colours.
- A mixture of photographed and hand drawn characters and backgrounds, tailored into a common visual style.
- Animated characters, locations, and effects.
- Interact with the inhabitants of Purgatorio.
- Inventory and conversation based puzzles, as well as some lateral thinking.
- Explore over 25 unique locations, indoor and outdoor.
- There’s a couple of Easter Eggs to be found, and a few sly references to other games and genres.
- All music is original and created solely for this game. 8 different tracks add atmosphere to exploration and puzzles.
- Simple, easy to use interface.
- Not really a feature but occasional bad language and strong, implied violence.
- Finally, an interesting storyline and game world.

As I said before the game is rather dark and disturbing which means it is not that suited for minors at all. If you still believe this is the right entertainment for the weekend for you head over to the thread in the AGS forum that has the announcement and a download link.